This is a Maddow two-fer, a revealing look at a problem, followed by the solution. I’m going to post both videos.

The Problem: “The media narrative … has turned into a Republican campaign ad.” It’s that simple.

Rachel Maddow gets right to the point in this well-produced segment. Her bottom line — the media narrative is identical the Republican party spin on what the midterm elections mean. As I said, well-produced:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

While this focuses on conservatives, let’s not forget her spotlight on the press: “The media dressing these guys up like there is some coherent narrative here … conveniently obscures what’s really going on here. … [W]e are on the precipice of elevating into federal office the most extreme … set of conservative candidates in a lifetime.”

Exactly. (And note that word “conveniently”. I think she means it.)

And now the Solution: Attack, attack, attack. Her follow-on segment contains many effective examples of Democrats fighting back hard.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

The discussion with Chris Hayes teases out some of the corner ideas, but the bottom line advice is clearly to defy the current Beltway pundits — and I’ll add, that of many consultants as well. Don’t hunker down; man up (as it were).

About “It’s the Deficit”, the lead lie in the pool. This one is totally disingenuous, both from the media (whose job is to know better) and conservatives (whose job is to lie to win).

Here’s Paul Krugman’s n-th attempt to illustrate a simple concept: The “deficit” has two components — income and expenses — not just one. The first set of bars in the graph below shows change in GDP, Expenditure, and Revenues in the last business cycle, 2001–2007. The second shows what came after. The “deficit” is the difference between the red bar (Expenditure) and the green bar (Revenues) next to it. (Note that the bars show rate of change, not nominal values.)

The red bar doesn’t change much, but the green bar tanks. Hmm. Looks like “deficit” as code for “spending on the Wrong People” doesn’t wash — not in the real world anyway. Keep your eye on that lie though. You’ll hear it from a lot from people whose job is to know better. Just sayin’.